This dossier section is intended to be an exact copy of what the survivor Helena, the author of the dossiers has written. There may be some discrepancies between this text and the in-game creatures.

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Wild

Tapejara imperator is a marvel to watch in the wild. It has astonishing agility compared to the Island's other flyers thanks in large part to the rudder-like fin that extends from its snout to the back of its skull.

Initially, I'd thought the fin was simply composed of keratin, but closer inspection has led me to believe that it is actually some kind of sensory organ. Not only does it decrease Tapejara's turning radius even at high speeds, but it apparently provides Tapejara with extra information to help it fly through the air with unparalleled grace. I've even seen Tapejara hover and strafe side-to-side in the air without moving forward at all. It's quite remarkable. The creature also makes effective use of razor-sharp claws to latch onto surfaces such as the trunks of tall trees, holding its position indefinitely.

When domesticated the Tapejara is typically outfitted with a unique triple-rider saddle, enabling two passengers to wield handheld weaponry while the pilot takes the reins. When the Tapejara is latched onto a surface, both the passengers and pilot are able to make full use of their weapons together!

Evidently what this skittering creature lacks in distance-stamina, constitution, and weight carrying capacity, it makes up for in maneuverability and combat versatility.

Found living around cliffs, tall redwood forests, and other largely vertical environments, Tapejara passively flies across the landscape, rarely venturing too far from the ground. Much like Pteranodon, Tapejara will occasionally land on the ground for short periods of time before taking off again. Tapejara will flee at any sign of danger, even if one is simply approached by a player without attacking it.

As a mid-sized pterosaur, Tapejara looks somewhat similar to a Pteranodon, and as a result is sometimes mistaken as one from a distance. However, there are several differences between the two, most notably that Tapejara is much larger than Pteranodon. Another notable feature of Tapejara is a large, somewhat crest-like sensory organ on top of its head, which allows Tapejara to finely maintain balance and literally fly circles around other, more cumbersome flyers.

This section displays the Tapejara's natural colors and regions. For demonstration, the regions below are colored red over an albino Tapejara. The colored squares shown underneath each region's description are the colors that the Tapejara will randomly spawn with to provide an overall range of its natural color scheme. Hover your cursor over a color to display its name and ID.

1Percentages are based on the value of the stat the moment the creature was tamed (after taming effectiveness)2The absolute Base Damage is shown here instead of the percentage.3Wild creatures do not level up movement speed4Torpidity increases every level on wild creatures, but can not be increased once they are tamed.

Using the (PC), (PS4), (Xbox One) while in the air, the Tapejara can pick up another creature. Despite a coded melee damage value, this attack does no damage.

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Attack Type

Damage

Projectile Values

Torpor Values

Status Effect: Stamina

Status Effect: Torpidity

Life

Impulse

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Mult

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Amount

Duration

Damage Mult

Amount

Melee

18

Taunt

Stamina Cost

Attack Range

Description

Base

Minimum

Activation

Using C (PC), (PS4), (Xbox One) while on the ground, the Tapejara flaps its wings and taunts the target.

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Attack Type

Damage

Projectile Values

Torpor Values

Status Effect: Stamina

Status Effect: Torpidity

Life

Impulse

Radius

Base

Mult

Duration

Damage Mult

Amount

Duration

Damage Mult

Amount

Melee

18

Wild Stats Level-up

Type in values of a wild creature to see on which stats it's emphasized. Green values on a high-level creature are very good for breeding. If you have already tamed your creature you can try to recover the breeding-stats with an external tool.[1]

Tapejara

The stat-calculator does not work in the mobile-view, see here for alternatives: Apps

Note that after the creature is tamed it gets bonuses on some stats depending on the taming effectiveness. This makes it hard to retrieve the levels on a tamed creature, so this tool is only for wild ones, but gives a first impression, how well the stats are distributed.

Ice wyvern strategy: This is mostly for those pesky tapejara that tend to fly so high they never come down. Get an ice wyvern, have it set to follow and a longneck with some shocking tranq darts. Use the ice wyvern's ice breath to slow it down mid-air then hop off your wyvern really quick. You can stand on it without worrying about falling off. (remember to have it set to follow or else it may try to land) and unload a dart into the tapejara. Rinse and repeat. Be wary of the possiblity that the ice breath might kill it.

Tapejara are skittish, and run away when you approach them or attack them. Using a bola to keep them down while you shoot tranquilizers into them is a very effective method. To effectively hit it with the bola without the risk of it fleeing, equip yourself with Ghillie Armor, so you can sneak up on them to around 5 meters.

It may be impossible to knock out a high-level tapejara within the time of a single bola. If it breaks out of the first bola and a second bola isn't in place, it'll flee and be very hard to catch. Another approach is to have pillars, ceilings, and walls in your shortcut hotbar; once the tapejara is hit with a bola, instead of tranquilizing it, use the bola time to quickly build a "trap" around it by placing a pillar on one side, ceilings above it, another pillar down from the other ceiling, then walls hanging from the ceilings all around. This may take some practice to position the trap parts correctly so the tapejara doesn't glitch out of it, but if it works, you can tranquilize the tapejara at your leisure, and already have some minimal protection around it once it's unconscious to protect it during taming. Demolish the trap when you're done.

Be careful not to scare it in the air because once they get to a certain height they take a considerable amount of time to land again.

Another, much easier alternative is to use the above method however on a pteranodon while consuming Rare Flower. This applies the same effect as the pachyrhinosaurus strategy, however is much easier and less clunky. You should then be easily able to lure it into a suitable cage and knock it out without the trouble of it running away or getting eaten by wild predators, assuming you have enough flowers that is.

Another method is to obtain a Mantis and equip it with a club. The Mantis' lunge attack can make quick work of the Tapejara's torpor without having to get close enough to scare it initially. However, if the Mantis' melee damage is too high, then you may run the risk of killing the Tapejara, so use caution.

Using a small, fast mount that allows you to hold weapons, such as raptors, direwolves and terror birds, you can sprint up to it with bola in hand and trap it before it can fly away, just be sure to have the bola already swinging before sprinting at it.

Wild Tapejara pose no real threat. However, when tamed the creature becomes a large, mobile, powerful adversary. With a fairly large AoE with its attack, a tamed one doesn't have to get too close to kill you.

No specific weakness other than the fact it can be ensnared using a Bola. However, in a PVP setting, Tapejara cannot attack when mounted on a cliff, and its stamina regenerates fairly slowly. Tire out an enemy tapejara and you'll easily be able to kill it, minding the riders on its back, of course.

Xbox has no way to do a proper elevator-climb; the closest one you can do is to look straight up or down and press the left-stick back or forward, respectively.

Simply fly next to any vertical surface and press spacebar to latch on.

One can latch onto a vertical surface 'upside-down' (with the Tapejara's face facing the ground) by backing up into the surface while pressing the land-button (Space, , ). This is useful for shooting at ground targets near shear cliffs while lacking passengers, as the default mounted/landed view for the rider of a clinging Tapejara is only in one direction; towards the Tapejara's face. This feature was revealed by Jeremy Stieglitz via twitter on September 19, 2016.[2]

Multi-passenger Transport: The Tapejara is capable of carrying a rider and two passengers on its saddle (not including the ability for other flyers to carry people in their talons).

Warbird: The front and rear passengers are able to fire their weapons at enemies. Its extreme maneuverability and ability to cling to walls makes it especially versatile in combat. Works well in combat itself, as the Tapejara's attack has a downwards, and fairly large AoE. This allows you to circle enemies while attacking them at a safe range.

Taming Mount: The Tapejara's ability to strafe, fly backwards, and have tribemates shooting from the saddle is useful in taming a variety of airborne creatures. Can be used both on fleeing creatures such as other Tapejaras and Quetzals, as well as aggressive creatures like Argentavis and possibly even Wyverns.

Construction Tool: The Tapejara's ability to hover or move in any direction by small increments (use C to descend and X to ascend) makes it very useful when constructing buildings, especially tall ones. Place building parts in your hotbar, fly into position, place a piece, then move to place the next. For instance, dropping many pillars or ladders from a high point can be done by placing one, pressing C to drop a bit, placing the next, and so on. If the tapejara's movements are too big, weighing it down can make it even easier to position yourself precisely.

Wyvern Egg Stealer: While its carry weight starts off relatively low, the supreme maneuverability and ability to latch vertical and ceiling surfaces to regain stamina allows it to be highly effective in raiding Wyvern nests. Given the Wyverns large turn radius, a skilled Tapejara flyer can dodge attacks with fair ease. Leveling Weight, Health, and Stamina can make it a star player in egg theft, if not as a carrier then as a decoy when with other Tribe members.

Taxi: By enabling the public seating option of the Tapejara, even survivors outside of a tribe can mount the passenger seats, allowing for public transportation without needing a platform saddle.

Despite being a carnivore in the game, Tapejara and its relatives are sometimes thought to have been frugivores in real life.[4]

Despite being so large, Tapejara can be ensnared using a Bola, or else it will be too difficult to tame.

It is one of two flying creature currently capable of flying backwards as well as strafing left and right, the other being the Griffin.

The dossier claims that the Tapejara can be equipped with a dual rider saddle, when Ingame the saddle can hold three players. This is allegedly because the two rider saddle 'looked stupid' according to the Devs.[citation needed]

It might be a bug, but Tapejara on Scorched Earth won't lose stamina when hanging onto a vertical surface during a sandstorm. This allows you to ride out the storm in relative safety.

If you kill something while the Tapejara is latched onto a wall, the game says that the Tapejara killed it, not you.

The name "Tapejara Imperator" translates into "Emperor Old Being"

Tapejara's species name, imperator, is shared in real-life with Tupandactylus, a pterosaur closely related to Tapejara that was originally classified as a species of said genus. Most reconstructions of Tapejara, including ARK's, are actually based on Tupandactylus.

A glitch in the mobile version of ARK makes it so when taking off, your Tapejara’s saddle disappears for a moment.

Another glitch in the mobile version of ARK occurs when you land in water while riding the Tapejara. Instead of forcing you off like the other fliers, the Tapejara will constantly walk forward on top of the water WITH the rider still on the saddle. This continues until the tapejara has reached land, where the rider will be able to regain control of the Tapejara.

Unlike the other fliers the Tapejara can´t be controlled after the rider pressed space to land, it will fly to the ground and land like if it run out of stamina.

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